''Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar'' () is a 1960 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

-language

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Nemai Ghosh. The film stars

K. Vijayan K. Vijayan was an Indian film director. He predominantly worked in Tamil cinema. He mainly worked with Sivaji Ganesan. He directed many Malayalam films as well. Career K. Vijayan was an employee of the Golden Rock Railway Workshop in Tiruchi ...

and

S. V. Subbaiah S. V. Subbaiah (1920-1980) was an Indian actor who featured mainly in Tamil-language plays and films. He featured mostly in character roles that communicated emotional feelings. Early life Subbaiah hails from Sengottai in Tirunelveli distri ...

. The film had musical score by

M. B. Sreenivasan Manamadurai Balakrishnan Sreenivasan (19 September 1925 – 9 March 1988), or MBS, was a South Indian music director who worked mainly in the Malayalam and Tamil film industries. He was born to an orthodox Tamil Brahmin family on 19 Septe ...

. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil along with '' Kalathur Kannamma''.

Plot

Cast

as Murugesan *

* S. V. Sahasranamam *

L. Vijayalakshmi Lakshmanan Vijayalakshmi is an Indian actress and classical dancer whose career was from 1959 to 1969. She appeared in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi films. Early life and training Vijayalakshmi was born in Ernakulam and was ...

* Chandini *

R. Muthuraman Muthuraman Radhakrishnan (4 July 1929 – 16 October 1981) was an Indian actor who predominantly appeared in Tamil language films. He was a leading actor during the 1960s and 1970s and was fondly called as ''Navarasa Thilagam''. He had paired w ...

T. K. Balachandran T. K. Balachandran was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Malayalam films. He has acted in more than 200 films. His areas of contribution includes Production, Dialogue, Story, Screenplay. He is the first actor to do a double role in the history ...

M. S. Sundari Bai Madurai Saurashtra Sundari Bai (2 March 1923 – 12 March 2006) was an Indian actress, singer and dancer who worked mainly in Tamil cinema from the 1940s to the 1970s. Sundari Bai was the wife of writer and director Kothamangalam Subbu. Her mos ...

Production

Nemai Ghosh and

formed a production company called Kumari Films, with contributions from more than 50 shareholders. Each of them contributed an amount ranging from 500 to 5,000 to start the banner. None of the members contributed more than 5,000. Kumari Films' inaugural production ''Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar'' was launched by the communist leader

P. Jeevanandham P. Jeevanandham (21 August 1907 – 18 January 1963) also called ''Jeeva'', was a social reformer, political leader, litterateur and one of the pioneers of the Communist and socialist movements in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. He was not o ...

. The film was the second directorial venture of Ghosh, who also worked as cinematographer.

Themes

''Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar'' addresses the trade union movement of India, and was scripted keeping the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

(CPI) ideology in mind.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

, while the lyrics were written by

Jayakanthan D. Jayakanthan (24 April 1934 – 8 April 2015), popularly known as JK, was an Indian writer, journalist, orator, filmmaker, critic and activist. Born in Cuddalore, he dropped out of school at the age of 9 and went to Madras, where he join ...

Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram (13 April 1930 – 8 October 1959) also known as Pattukottaiyar was an Indian Tamil poet and lyricist. Considered to be the most popular Tamil lyricist of the 1950s, he is particularly remembered for the philo ...

and K. C. S. Arunachalam. The

playback singer A playback singer, also known as a ghost singer, is a singer whose singing is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras; the actual singer does not app ...

s were

T. M. Soundararajan Thoguluva Meenatchi Iyengar Soundararajan (24 March 1923 – 25 May 2013), popularly known as TMS, was an Indian Carnatic musician and a playback singer in Tamil cinema for over six and a half decades. He sang over 10,138 songs from 3,162 fi ...

Thiruchi Loganathan Thiruchi Loganathan (24 July 1924 – 17 November 1989) was a playback singer of the Tamil film industry. He is known for his work in movies such as ''Manthiri Kumari'' (1950) and '' Parasakthi'' (1952). He was married to Rajalakshmi, daughter ...

P. B. Sreenivas Prathivadhi Bhayankara Sreenivas (22 September 1930 – 14 April 2013) widely known as P. B. Sreenivas was an Indian playback singer, composer, harmonium player, lyricist, littérateur, and poet known for his works in South cinema, and Bollyw ...

A. L. Raghavan A. L. Raghavan (1933 – 19 June 2020) was an Indian playback singer, who sang many songs in Tamil-language films. Biography Raghavan was born to a Saurashtra Brahmin family in Ayyampettai near Thanjavur to Lakshmana Bhagavathar, Raghavan e ...

, A. S. Mahadevan,

S. Janaki Sistla Janaki (born 23 April 1938) is an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer from Andhra Pradesh. She is referred to respectfully as "Janaki Amma" and Nightingale of South India. She is one of the best-known playback singers in ...

and

P. Susheela Pulapaka Susheela (born 13 November 1935), popularly known as P. Susheela, is an Indian playback singer associated with the South Indian cinema primarily from Andhra Pradesh for over six decades. She is one of the greatest and best-known playba ...

. Vaali wrote the song "Koduthadellam Koduthan" for this film but it was rejected by Ghosh, and instead used in ''

Padagotti ''Padagotti'' () is a 1964 Indian Tamil-language social problem film directed by T. Prakash Rao and produced by G. N. Velumani. The film stars M. G. Ramachandran and B. Saroja Devi, with M. N. Nambiar, S. V. Ramadas, Nagesh, Manorama and Jay ...

'' (1964). The song "Thennankeetru" is based on

Valaji Valaji or Valachi is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is a pentatonic scale (''audava'' or ''owdava'' rāgam, which means "of 5"). It is a ''janya'' rāgam (derived scale), as it does not have all t ...

raga A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradit ...

, and was set to tune with a

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the ...

Release and reception

''Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar'' was released on 18 November 1960. In July, select reels of the film were made available for previewing as the final film was not yet complete. ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' then wrote, "The plot unfolds itself with easy tempo and unflagging interest. The songs are natural and exceptionally homely. Photography and sound recording are superb". Reviewing the complete version on 19 November, they praised the film for minimal dramatisation and more naturalism. Despite critical acclaim, the film did not succeed commercially; the distributors complained that L. Vijayalakshmi did not dance, to which the director replied, " ijayalakshmiknows how to dance, but the character she plays in the film does not!" According to historian

Randor Guy Madabhushi Rangadorai (born 8 November 1937), better known by his pen name Randor Guy, is an Indian lawyer, columnist and film and legal historian associated with the English language newspaper ''The Hindu''. He is also the official editor of the ...

, "internal dissensions spoiled the film's release and caused it to flop."

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{National Film Award Best Feature Film Tamil 1960 films 1960s Tamil-language films Films about communism Films directed by Nemai Ghosh Films scored by M. B. Sreenivasan